Today I'm going to calculate the ROI and hourly wage of using a clothesline to dry clothes. 

Potential Savings

Each clothes dryer is different, so your energy savings will probably differ from mine. In addition, the price of electricity and propane also goes up and down and differs according to region, so do your own calculations for "official" savings of line-drying as opposed to using a clothes dryer.

Here is a good online calculator to help you figure out how much money you spend per load of machine-dried clothing.

For simplicity's sake, I'm going to say that we save $0.50 per load of laundry that gets line-dried. Your yearly savings will depend on how many loads you do per week. On average, Hubs and I do about two loads of laundry every week.

1 load/wk: $0.50 ($26.00/yr)
2 loads: $1.00 ($52.00)
3 loads: $1.50 ($78.00)
4 loads: $2.00 ($104.00)
5 loads: $2.50 ($130.00)
6 loads: $3.00 ($156.00)
7 loads: $3.50 ($182.00)
8 loads: $4.00 ($208.00)
9 loads: $4.50 ($234.00)
10 loads: $5.00 ($260.00)

Hourly Wage

Obviously, the time it takes to hang out a load of pants will be much less than a load of socks. So, let's do some different calculations. I'm going to guess at how long each type of load takes to hang out.

Load of pants: $0.50 x 12 (5 minute sessions) = $6.00/hr.
Load of shirts: $0.50 x 6 (10 minute sessions) = $3.00/hr.
Load of socks & underwear: $0.50 x 3 (20 minute sessions) = $1.50/hr.

Hmm... for the most part, this activity falls below my coverline $4.00/hr. "housewife wage". That means that I'm only going to do it when I have the time, or when it's convenient (for example, when it is not raining). I know some people who hang laundry outside during the winter, but keep in mind that because of the cold, it will take even longer. Which means even less than $3.00 per hour. There's no way I'm willing to freeze for that hourly wage. So my personal yearly savings (at two loads per week) is probably less than $25.00 per year. This could be doubled if I line dried indoors, but I'm not that ambitious for a savings of only $4.00 per month.

Return On Investment

If you want to start line drying, all you will need to buy is a clothesline and clothespins. Many people already have a clothesline in their backyard, but those who don't can hang a clothesline on their porch or even indoors. I know a girl who ran a clothesline indoors almost the entire length of her double-wide trailer. The line and clothespins will last for years if you're careful, but do eventually wear out. My ROI, therefore, will be for six loads per week, over the course of five years (estimated life of the clothespins & rope).

Investment: 100 pk. of clothespins ($2.00) + clothesline rope ($10.00) = $12.00
Return: $156 per year x 5 years = $780.00

ROI: 6500%

Conclusion

​I think line drying is great for a sunny, summer day. The good news is that line drying requires no special skill. Any eight-year-old child can hang laundry. Line drying is also better for your clothes and will help them last longer.

Line drying is also a very cheap way to save a lot of money. With a $12.00 investment, you have the potential to save hundreds of dollars.

That being said, there are probably better ways to save money if you are short on time. 

Til next time,
-Bethany

Hello folks! I know about every other homemaking blog out there has a laundry detergent tutorial, but I thought I'd do my own anyway. It is so cheap and easy to make, and for the two of us, a five-gallon pail lasts a LONG time.

Homemade Laundry Soap

½ cup borax
1 cup washing soda
5-6 oz. soap, grated
3 gallons water
5-gallon bucket with a lid

Instructions:
1. Measure out the borax and washing soda. I would recommend storing these items in a glass or otherwise air-tight container, because in a humid area it might cake up, dry out and be impossible to measure.

2. Grate the soap. A lot of recipes call for the use of Fels-Naptha, which is a wonderful soap. However, Hubs and I don't need stain-removing power in our laundry soap (I just use a spray-on stain remover when necessary), and $3 per bar makes it less frugal than just using regular soap. In the picture below, I used free hotel soap and some homemade soap chunks. I used a Kitchen Aid grating attachment to grate the soap. This is a LOT easier than making soap shavings by hand, and a lot faster, too.

3. Add 1 quart of water to the soap, and bring to a boil. This will dissolve the soap shavings.

Make sure you're using a large pot... otherwise it might boil over!

4. Put the rest of the water in your five-gallon bucket. At this point, most recipes tell you to put the borax, washing soda and soap water in the bucket, and stir to dissolve the soda and borax. Because my soda was clumpy (thanks, humidity), I thought it would be better to dissolve it in the hot, soapy water, and THEN pour everything into the bucket.

6. Pour everything into the five-gallon bucket, and mix well.

I chose to top off the bucket with water, in order to get more soap out of the recipe.

7. Let the soap sit overnight before using. The next morning, it should have a gel-like consistency. Mine usually turns out a little watery (probably because I use normal soap, and/or add more water), but still works great. I keep a normal laundry detergent cap in the bucket for measuring. For large loads I use two caps-full, and for small loads I only use one cap-full.

As I write this, it's cold and dripping wet outside. If you're doing laundry, it's a good excuse to use the dryer, right? Not so fast! There are still ways to get by without a dryer.

One lady I know hangs clothes on the line all winter. She has a line strung on her front porch as well, which gets used when it's raining. I'm not hard-core enough to hang wet laundry outside in the dead of winter, but there are other options.

1. Use a wooden drying rack. These are great but they don't hold a lot, tip over easily (in my experience) and aren't cheap.

2. String up a line indoors. I know of one girl who strung a line right through the middle of her double wide like a big party banner!

3. Put an extra shower curtain rod in your shower. Put clothing on a hanger and hang it on the extra shower rod. This is how I dry indoors. It works well if I don't have too much laundry and if neither of us are taking a shower during that time.

4. Hang a homemade drying rack on the ceiling and dry clothing on hangers. I got this idea from a really cool mom (you know who you are!) and I think it is the best of all options. After the clothes dry, you don't even have to hang them up- just move the (plastic) hangers into the closet. Unlike the standing drying racks, you can dry a LOT more clothes, and you don't have to coordinate clothes drying with shower time. Nor do you have to handle wet clothes in the dead of winter or run a huge underwear-ridden party banner through the largest room in your house. 

This hanging rack was made from the sides of an old crib. 

According to MomOnTimeOut, a load of laundry can cost $0.44- $1.32. Let's say it costs $0.75 to be fair. I only do about two loads per week, but even so I'm saving $1.50 per week, equal to $78 per year. With my two loads of big-people clothes and some socks and underwear, it probably takes me 5-10 minutes to hang the laundry each week. Not a big hassle. If you were doing loads and loads of infant clothes it might not be worth it. But then again, if you use #4, you're saving the time it takes to hang up all of the clothes as well. Food for thought.

Do you line-dry indoors? What's your laundry secret?